Experimenting Flashcards
Levitis’ definition of behaviour?
“Internally coordinated responses (actions or inactions) of whole living organisms (individuals and/or groups) to external and/or internal stimuli, excluding responses more easily understood as developmental changes”
Applications of studying behaviour? (5)
Aquaculture - post-release mortality i.e. avoiding the release of juveniles with no life experience (e.g. predator awareness)
Human-Wildlife Conflict - e.g. elephants destroying cropland in Mozambique, deterred peacefully with capsicum (pepper) planting
Conservation - like aquaculture, allowing release of animals reared in captivity to the wild by teaching them the skills they need
Neuroscience - e.g. birdsong understanding has produced a more plastic model of our own brain development, e.g. neurogenesis with applications for Alzheimer’s
Public Engagement - involving the public helps global effort
System research looks at?
Species / ecosystems i.e. benefits of hunting in a group, benefits of a certain food choice
Question research looks at?
Within a species, usually looks at all behavioural examples (in order to be efficient with equipment and training) to then develop a hypothesis based on observations
Ethogram
List of all behaviours exhibited by an organism
What is an event?
Type of data recording with a short duration so is measured as a frequency (number that occur)
What is a state?
A recorded duration i.e. behaviour that lasts some time
Sampling protocols? (5)
Ad libitum Focal Animal All Occurrences Binary Sampling Scan Sampling
Ad libitum?
Qualitative
Researcher records individual/group individuals randomly, often to generate an ethogram
Focal Animal?
One individual is focused on
All Occurrences
One/ a few certain events chosen and recorded within a certain time period
Allows rate, frequency and synchrony to be investigated
Binary Sampling
Used with a very specific question, records whether a behaviour did (1) or did not (0) occur in a time period, irrelevant of frequency
Scan Sampling
Instantaneous - researcher will observe all exhibited behaviours at a specific time interval
Large data amounts, not very sensitive to rare events but gives bigger picture
Types of info?
Latency (time from stimulus to behaviour), frequency, duration
What makes hypothesis testing different?
Uses statistical analysis using controls and replications - implements Tinbergen’s framework
What are banana skins?
Challenges in behaviour - study with caution, as there are many possible explanations for a behaviour.
Dangers of anthropomorphism?
Projecting human qualities to animals e.g. facial expressions in primates
Differing perceptions: e.g. birds see UV so may respond to signals we cannot see and so may assume don’t exist
Tinbergen’s four whys?
Mechanism
Ontogeny (life history, learning)
Function (adaptive value)
Phylogeny (evolution)
Proximate answers?
Mechanism and ontogeny
Ultimate?
Function and phylogeny
Tinbergen’s study?
Beewolf - proximate (mechanism) was landmarks to identify nest sites
Gulls - ultimate question found empty shell removal was adaptive to increase offspring survival
What is the geographical schism?
Differences in biology between Europe and America;
Europe: ethology i.e. under natural field conditions
America: behaviourism in lab conditions
Romanes’ spider
Thought spiders had a passion for the tunes
Vibrations instead resembled the movements of prey caught in webbing
Europe focus? Scientists?
Nature - natural field conditions, innate behaviours
Lorenz FAPs and sign stimulus
American focus? Scientists?
Lab environment - behaviourism, idea of tabular rasa
Skinner and Watson
